Kevin Atherton

The Media Department, NationalCollege of Art and Design Dublin, Ireland

Leah Hilliard

The Media Department, NationalCollege of Art and Design Dublin, Ireland

Anthony Hobbs

The Media Department, NationalCollege of Art and Design Dublin, Ireland

Three Prepostorous PhD Proposals

The presentation would take the form of three individual fifteen-minute presentations which all in one way or another present problems in the way they might test the understanding of what a PhD might legitimately be.

Anthony Hobbs in the way that he proposes to create memories of events that have yet to occur defies the tradition of documentation, and in so doing challenges the notion of an existing body of work. Leah Hilliard use of corporate modes of presentation openly places her PhD ambitions within a five-year career plan and through the spoken word speaks about the very reasons (often kept quite) that people might do a PhD for. Kevin Atherton does a PhD on Kevin Atherton and doesn’t think that this is egotistical.

All of this is preposterous.

1) Anthony Hobbs, NCAD

‘Visual Memory’ Documenting the future. A practice based research into pre visualisation.

Our single most impressive sense is our visual one. Visual memory is a memory of all things visual whether we understand them consciously or not. Subliminal memories are attributes that we take for granted most of the time.

How do we remember what we see with any accuracy? How can we reproduce what we have seen and remembered? Can we document reality after the event just from memory and can we train our visual memory to a point of pre visualisation so we can document an event before it happens?

Since the invention of photography artists have practiced pre visualisation as a tool in decision making about how a photograph will turn out. As photography is more or less a two part process involving the initial capture of the image followed by the processing of the image into a print. This holds true for traditional ‘wet’ photography and a digital workflow.

One of the acknowledged masters of the photographic landscape was Ansel Adams. He championed the technique of pre visualisation as a way of ‘picture making’ as distinct from ‘picture taking’ This distinction is significant in terms of the research into visual memory training. ‘Picture making’ would suggest a pre emptive attempt to create something from nothing, ‘picture taking’ seems to be a more of an ‘after the event’ kind of approach.

Pre visualisation is a method of imagining what a finished photograph will look like so that the necessary adjustments and controls can be applied during the looking, seeing and perception stages of making a photograph.

If you extract the actual methodology from pre visualisation and apply it to the creation of a new random image , hypothetically, you should be able to construct that image from memory as a consequence of acquired sensuous knowledge. In essence, make an image of the future.

I propose to test this theory in practice and make a series of pre visualised images from memory.

2) Myself as a PhD Proposal

Kevin Atherton

I propose to do a PhD on myself which in it’s own self-reflection becomes a work of art in it’s own right. If someone else was proposing to do a PhD on Kevin Atherton it wouldn’t be a problem but sure what would they know anyway.

3) Leah Hilliard

Artist CV

Leah Hilliard works in digital media and performance. Her performance work ranges from spoken word through to performance to camera she has represented Ireland at performance festivals nationally and internationally. Currently the co-ordinator for the MA in Virtual Realties in the National College of Art and design, Leah took up the post in NCAD after completing the MSc in Multimedia Systems in Trinity College Dublin. Previous to her return to college she was the Artistic programme co-ordinator of Arthouse Multimedia Centre for the Arts, Temple Bar Dublin. She continues to work as an independent curator and exhibition advisor.

Performance details

Name: Leah Hilliard
Nationality: Irish
Project title: 5 yr Plan
Description: Spoken work performance piece using digital projection

Outline of Project

This spoke word performance takes place in front of large scale projection in the style of a corporate presentation. The duration is between 10 – 15 min’s long with time for questions and answers ( depending on scheduling).

Within this project I consider in absolute detail what I want to achieve in the 5yrs from my 30th birthday to my 35th birthday. Not only have I plotted what steps I need to take to achieve my goals but each component has variables which interlink. Add to this the element of time and the fact that I myself as an individual and a child of circumstance change constantly and therefore the work to alters with each performance. Its non linear in its construction to allow for this.

The corporate/ industry style is implemented through the use of language, imagery and technique’s more commonly associated with that sphere, then the art world. This is to reinforce the projects origins in my reflections on the standard interview question “where do you see yourself in 5 years time?”

Aims of Project

Project management books talk about keeping “your eye on the prize”, to achieve your objectives, i.e. to keep your eye on the prize you first must know what the prize is or define your project. Taoists also proclaim the importance of having goals or creative visualization, thinking trough a problem. Indeed daydreaming has been proven to be a beneficial tool in management if you “daydream” about all the possible scenarios; you’re more likely to be able to adjust when they happen.

Consider setting your new years resolutions for the next five years. Resolutions always seem to reflect a need to be a better ones self , be a more successful or healthy individual. Think how if you did all those things where you would be in 5yrs time.

The performance focuses on three aspects of my life

• Private life
• Art practice
• Career

Outcomes

A résumé talks about where you have been it only hints at where you hope to go. This project could become the ultimate networking tool it gives me the ability blatantly promote my aspirations within the art world to an art audience. It’s cheeky but it might just work in the words of Arthur Miller “Maybe all one can hope is to end up with is the right regrets”.